Voices of Esalen Podcast

Shannon Algeo is a psychotherapist, author, and teacher. He is also a Soul Coach, Yoga Nidra teacher, and the founder of Soulumination Meditation. Shannon works with clients to heal patterns of trauma so they can show up in the world with presence, purpose, and peace. His work has been featured in Rolling Stone, ABC news, and Yoga Journal.

Shannon came to Esalen in December of 2024 to lead a workshop on smartphone addiction. Together we spoke about attachment theory and how it figures into technology addiction, what it feels like to be in Big Sur, detached from your phone, and the digital personas we create and how we attempt to live up to them.

Deborah Eden Tull is a leading Buddhist and EcoDharma teacher whose wisdom has touched countless lives. Recently, Eden and her husband, Mark, faced a life-altering tragedy when Hurricane Helene swept through Western North Carolina, destroying their home as well as all their belongings, and very nearly claiming their lives.

Eden has long been a powerful voice urging humanity to face the climate crisis with clarity and courage, and her teachings feel especially poignant in light of this personal loss. In this conversation, we explore her reflections on resilience, interconnection, and how we can meet these challenging times with open hearts.

View Eden's gripping 10-minute video that captures the aftermath of Hurricane Helene on Instagram or YouTube.

Please consider donating to Eden and Mark's GoFundMe. You can also visit their GoFund Me by simply searching for "GoFund Me Deborah Eden Tull."

Find out more about Mark’s Stress Relief Flower Essence blend.

Dr. Victor Santiago Pineda is a globally recognized scholar, disability rights advocate, social impact entrepreneur, and international consultant on accessibility and inclusion. Born in Caracas, Venezuela, Dr. Pineda was diagnosed with a form of muscular dystrophy as a child, a challenge that inspired his lifelong commitment to advancing the rights and dignity of people with disabilities. He became the youngest delegate involved in drafting the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, a groundbreaking treaty that has impacted millions around the world.

Dr. Pineda holds degrees in political economy, business administration, city and regional planning, and a PhD in urban planning from UCLA, where his research on disability rights and urban development garnered international acclaim. As the founder of the Pineda Foundation and World Enabled, he has spearheaded initiatives that have brought global attention to the inclusion of disabled youth in education, employment, and policy-making. His innovative projects, such as "It's Our Story," an oral history project documenting the lived experiences of people with disabilities, and "It's About Ability," an educational program for children, have been translated into multiple languages and received international awards.

Beyond his scholarly and advocacy work, Dr. Pineda is also a filmmaker, author, and thought leader whose work spans the fields of urban planning, human rights, and social innovation. He has advised organizations like UNICEF, UNESCO, the World Bank, and national governments on creating inclusive policies and practices. Dr. Pineda’s visionary leadership continues to redefine how societies view accessibility, equality, and the potential of all individuals, regardless of their abilities. On this episode of Voices of Esalen, we delve into his remarkable journey, groundbreaking initiatives, and powerful vision for a more inclusive world.

Watch the trailer for Dr. Pineda's documentary UNCONFINED: Towards a life without limits.

Josef London has been a cornerstone of the Esalen community for more than 30 years. In our conversation Josef shares about the leap of faith that brought him to Esalen from Rio de Janeiro in search of healing, transformation, and a place to call home. Today, guests know him from the Gate; he is one of the first people they meet upon arriving at Esalen. He has a delightful smile, but what they may not know is that Josef is steeped in the philosophy of Gestalt, and that he is decidedly not conflict averse — rather, he believes that conflict is where the truth comes out. At the same time, Josef believes fun is mandatory. He is a lover, with a huge heart, and in this conversation he speaks lovingly and at length about the love he lost, his wife Montgomery. You'll be touched by this conversation with one of Esalen's memorable characters. "Thank you so much."

Photo by Kate Kondratieva

Chandra Easton is a senior Dharma teacher, author, and translator of Tibetan Buddhist texts. She is well renowned for her efforts to elevate the empowered feminine in Buddhism. Chandra has a deep lineage of study under the guidance of prominent Tibetan and Western Buddhist teachers, beginning her journey in Buddhist practice at the age of four. She’s spent decades bridging traditional Tibetan teachings with a modern approach, making profound wisdom practices accessible and relevant for today’s world. We spoke together live at Esalen this fall where we explored her latest book, Embodying Tara: Twenty-One Manifestations to Awaken Your Innate Wisdom, diving deep into themes of ego, suffering, and the transformative practice known as 'Feed Your Demons.'

John Marks is the founder of Search for Common Ground, an international NGO whose purpose is to end violent conflict around the world. In 2018, Search was nominated for a Nobel Peace prize. Over the years some of their notable work has included helping to avert genocide in Burundi, supporting free elections in Liberia and Sierra Leone, and creating training in the Democratic Republic of Congo to curb sexual assault. Marks is the author of the new book From Vision to Action, Remaking the world through Social Entrepreneurship. Together, we spoke about how Esalen helped to launch his work and what he’s learned in over 40 years of track 2, or citizen diplomacy.

BIO:
John Marks had an unconventional path to peacemaking, starting as a critic of the CIA and becoming a renowned social entrepreneur. Marks resigned from the State Department in 1970 to protest the United States' invasion of Cambodia. He co-authored a bestselling book, The CIA and the Cult of Intelligence, which exposed abuses committed by the CIA. His second book, which won a major award for investigative reporting, also focused on CIA abuses.

In 1982, Marks founded Search for Common Ground (Search), an organization dedicated to conflict resolution and peacebuilding. Marks's journey showcases a remarkable shift from a career focused on exposing wrongdoing to a life dedicated to building common ground and fostering peace. Marks and his colleagues at Search were known as "Searchers," highlighting their dedication to seeking solutions and common ground in conflict situations.

Today we celebrate Bicycle Day, a modern semi-holiday (unrecognized by official governmental agencies yet observed by psychedelic enthusiasts across the globe) that commemorates Swiss chemist Albert Hoffman’s bike ride home from his lab on April 19th, 1943, after ingesting 250 micrograms of lysergic acid diethlymide, and in the process creating the world's first recorded intentional LSD trip. When Hoffman originally synthesized the compound in 1938, in the Sandoz Pharmeacuticals laboratory in Basel, he had deemed it next to useless, and put it up on the shelf to be forgotten — but five years later, something within him told him to take a second look. The rest, as they say, is history.

Today’s Voices of Esalen episode is a treasure drawn from our extensive archives — an interview with Albert Hoffman himself, conducted by none other than Stanislav Grof, sometimes known as the godfather of LSD psychotherapy. Grof was a Czechoslovakian psychoanalyst who was enormously influenced by Hoffman’s discovery of LSD; in his research in Czechoslovakia he oversaw tens of thousands of supervised therapeutic LSD trips. Grof would emigrate to the United States in the late 1960’s, a move precipitated by the Soviet invasion of his country. Grof spent more than ten years as a teacher in residence at the Esalen Institute during the 1970’s and 80’s, where he developed the practice of holotropic breath work and became one of the founders of the school of transpersonal psychology.

In this interview, Grof and Hoffman explore a host of topics, including Hoffman’s discovery of LSD and how on his first trip, Hoffman freaked out and thought he was going insane, then thought he was dying; how Hoffman then became aware that his new discovery would have immense significance to the field of psychiatry; why Hoffman believed LSD could be used as a model psychosis and a way to study schizophrenia; how Hoffman collaborated with amateur mycologist R. Gordon Wasson to create a synthetic version of so-called magic mushrooms, which would be known as psilocybin; how Hoffman traveled to Mexico to deliver this modern version of mushrooms to the famed curandera Maria Sabina, who had introduced Wasson to the mushrooms in the first place, and more. They end this interview by speaking about Hoffman’s reaction to the way LSD escaped the laboratory and infiltrated culture during the turbulent 1960s.

This interview was conducted at Esalen Institute in 1984 — just one part of the ever evolving and complex tapestry of history that unfolded here in Big Sur.

Keith Thompson is an author, independent journalist, talk radio host, and former U.S. Senate staff member. Keith’s work has appeared in the New York Times, Esquire and the San Francisco Chronicle. He’s the author of the new book, The UFO Paradox: The Celestial and Symbolic World of Unidentified Aerial Phenomena, in which he reveals how the UFO phenomenon ultimately represents a call from the cosmos for humanity to open to greater dimensions of reality and recognize that our understanding of the universe is still far from complete.

Together we talked about how he discovered Esalen in 1975 from a New Yorker article, his friendship with Esalen co-founder Michael Murphy, how he became involved in the earliest incarnations of Esalen’s Center for Theory & Research, the genius of Esalen’s "no one captures the flag" approach, the "Tuesday morning phenomenon," and the links between the paranormal and the aims of the human potential movement.

Today we have a special episode. We're bringing you something unique and powerful: a real Esalen check-in. This practice, rooted in the Gestalt therapy that evolved at Esalen over the years, has become a cornerstone of the Esalen experience, often described as a catalyst for self-awareness, connection, and personal growth.

Our check-in features an incredible group of people: full-time staff members Nani Almanza, Jess Siller, Alex Shepherd, Sam Stern, and Shira Levine, as well as Faith Blakeney, a participant in the LEEP and REEP residential programs.

What you'll hear is real. It is authentic and unscripted. While our participants were aware of being recorded, they spoke from the heart. We've made every effort to preserve the intimacy and rawness of the experience with only minimal editing.

This episode offers a rare glimpse into the heart of what makes Esalen truly special. This is the secret sauce — the open, honest sharing that forms the foundation for personal transformation.

I invite you to listen with an open heart and mind, as we explore this fundamental Esalen practice together.

Erik Davis stands tall at the intersection between mysticism, technology, and counterculture. He's one of my favorite writers, the author of many stupendous books, among them TechGnosis: Myth, Magic, and Mysticism in the Age of Information, Nomad Codes, as well as High Weirdness, a highly entertaining book that explores 1970s counterculture and its relationship with altered states of consciousness. Erik is also an Esalen faculty member, having recently taught a course on Embodied Writing and Spiritual Practice.

In this conversation, we went into his new book, Blotter, an extended meditation on LSD blotter art and the culture that surrounds it. We also found time to veer off into a host of topics, including Terence McKenna, John C. Lilly, Dick Price, madness, Stan Grof, the spiritual emergency network, prep-school deadheads, the Village Voice, the Internet and Erik's theory that it kills subcultures, the phenomenon of what Erik calls "cannabis thinking," how he was never much of a "cannabis writer," tape machines and their place in the counterculture, the Merry Pranksters, Phillip K. Dick, Bay Area Poster art, the DEA and its own little zine — and much more.

Erik is one of the cofounders of the Berkeley Alembic, a nonprofit bodymind center committed to experiments in transformation. You can also find his collected works at Techgnosis.